Venice

One of the most beautiful sail ins in the world. We were up and out on deck by 6.30am, for the sail in up the Giudecca Canal to the Stazione Marittima terminal, passing an empty St. Marks square along the way, and yes it is a spectacular sight.

Once the ship had docked we were off to St. Marks Square by water shuttle, we were dropped off just down from St. Marks and walked back to St. Marks over four bridges, as we entered the square the church bells were ringing and as we were quite early it was not to crowded (yet).  From St. Marks we wandered through the lanes and alleyways to the Rialto Bridge, where we were to meet friends later in the day (David wanted to make sure we know how to get there

later).   Then back to St. Marks Square, we didn’t stop of a coffee, as it was 6 euros for the coffee, 6 euros for the seat and 6 euros of entertainment, so 18 euros each which we felt was a bit much.  We then caught a Vaporetto (water bus) over to Murano Island (famous for its glass) to get away from the crowds for a while, lovely place not as busy as Venice itself.

In the early evening were meet up with some friends from the ship to do a bar crawl around the Rialto area, it was a fun night sampling many different wines and food at the bars we visited.  We eventually finished up at a bar near the Rialto vaporetto stop, and after some deliberation decided it was time to head back to the ship, little did we know that the people mover back to the cruise terminal stopped at 11pm.   By this time it was pouring

with rain, and we thought we knew the general direction to the ship, and the proceeded to head in the wrong direction completely, I wouldn’t have minded being lost in Venice, but being lost in the back of the port area of Venice with miles to go was not my idea of fun.   We eventually made it back to the ship only to find that the gangway had been closed, luckily a lovely crew member showed us the way to the crew entrance, by the time we go back to our cabin it was well passed midnight.  It was a night to remember.

Day 2 in Venice was for shopping, so we were up and off the ship early, it seemed far more crowed than the previous day, the queues for the Basilica and the Doge’s Palace were much longer than the before.  We headed off down more lanes and alleys lined with shops containing everything a girl would want to buy, and once David had exercised the plastic a bit we went back to the ship for a restful afternoon before sail away.